2013 Champion Tier List - Solo Queue - Patch 3.9 Updated July

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SEASON 3 - PATCH 3.9  SOLO QUEUE TIER LIST

Preface Chatter
This tier list is coming up quite fast after the latest patch, earlier than usual. This means that I'll likely have to do another one in a week or two once the changes have set into place...anyway Patch 3.9's brought quite a few changes, including some much needed nerfs and buffs:

Nerfs: Hecarim, Kayle, Kennen, Nunu
Buffs: Corki, Malzahar, Shyvana, Ziggs
Tweaks: Brand, Draven, Jayce, Leblanc

Also in this list I'd like to note that all the AD carries seem pretty even at the moment.

The Tier List

God Tier: 
Mid-Lane Gods: Kassadin, Twisted Fate
Jungle Gods: Amumu, Fiddlesticks, Rammus, Sejuani
AD Gods: 
Top Lane Gods: Singed, Wukong
Support Gods:  Janna, Sona, Thresh

Tier 1:
Mid-Lane: Zyra, Kennen, Malzahar, Diana, Jayce
Jungle: Jarvan IV, Zac, Nasus, Hecarim, Nunu, Cho'Gath, Evelynn, Nautilus, Lee Sin, Volibear, Maokai, Elise
AD Carry: Varus, Caitlyn, Ezreal, Vayne, Draven, Graves, Twitch
Top Lane: Tryndamere, Kennen, Elise, Renekton, Yorick, Jayce, Nidalee, Irelia, Riven, Lee Sin, Udyr
Support: Nami, Taric, Blitzcrank, Leona

Tier 2:
Mid-Lane: Brand, Kayle, Ryze, Mordekaiser, Talon, Vladimir, Elise, Fizz, Ahri, Viktor, Lux, Anivia, Nidalee, Zed, Cho'Gath, Xerath, Swain, Karthus, Katarina, Evelynn, Orianna, Ziggs
Jungle: Udyr, Warwick, Shen, Kha'Zix, Nocturne, Malphite, Leona, Shaco, Vi, Trundle,Xin Zhao, Diana, Shyvana, Zed
AD Carry: Miss Fortune, Tristana, Kog'Maw, Corki, Ashe, Sivir
Top Lane: Jax, Kayle, Rumble, Ryze, Teemo, Aatrox, Kha'Zix, Vladimir, Nasus, Shen, Cho'gath, Zac, Darius, Volibear, Garen, Zed, Malphite
Support: Soraka, Lulu, Zyra, Alistar

Tier 3:
Mid-Lane: Morgana, Kha'Zix, Akali, Pantheon, Cassiopeia, Galio, Annie, Master Yi, Sion, Gragas, Lulu, Fiddlesticks
Jungle: Riven, Pantheon, Dr. Mundo,  Skarner, Jax, Kayle, Darius
AD Carry: Quinn
Top Lane:  Jarvan IV, Warwick, Fiora, Xin Zhao, Pantheon, Akali, Galio, Talon, Trundle, Dr. Mundo, Poppy
Support: Nunu, Nautilus, Shen, Morgana, Nidalee, Lux,

Tier 4:
Mid-Lane:  Lissandra, Syndra, Veigar, Kog'maw, Zilean, Leblanc, Tristana, Janna, Ezreal, Heimerdinger, Karma
Jungle: Rengar, Olaf, Master Yi (AD), Tryndamere, Gangplank, Fiora, Blitzcrank, Alistar
AD Carry: Urgot
Top Lane:  Rengar,Gangplank, Shyvana, Olaf
Support: Kayle, Elise, Maokai, Yorick, Lissandra, Karma, Ashe, Zilean, Leblanc, Fiddlesticks, Ryze, Caitlyn

• Heroes in BOLD I will talk about shortly
• Heroes in Italics may be over/undervalued, but aren't/haven't played enough for me to make a better judgement.
• Within each tier the champions are strongest from left to right, but within a tier each champion's strength is relatively close. This is especially true for Tiers 2 and 3 where these heroes are ALL highly playable and player dependent on how strong they are in-game.

Click Here for a description of the tiers

God Tier: These champions are almost impossible to keep down. If your team doesn't make it a priority to shut down these champions and shut them down hard, even if they lose their lane, lose in CS, and it's their first time playing the champion, they can be a massive nuisance for your team. On the other hand, if they're actually good at the champion...that's when it's time to throw in the towel.

Tier 1: These champions generally do very well regardless, and have some sort of advantage over most other champions. When they do well, their team does well. Even when they don't do well, their team still has a good chance of a comeback victory by utilizing one or more aspects of their late game utility.

Tier 2: This is the Tier of balanced champions where Riot shoots to place their designs. These champions generally do well in their own right, and are very strong picks with a good chance of winning. However, they're not overpowered by any means and do have their weaknesses.

Tier 3: These champions can still do very well, but tend to need a little more snowballing to get rolling. Even if they get an early lead, it's still very possible to turn the tides on them with just a mistake or two. They may also have some weaknesses that can be capitalized on.

Tier 4: These champions are either underpowered or offer less reward than other champions for the same amount of effort. These champions basically start winning from the get-go or get made fun of for the rest of the game. They need gold to do their job correctly, and if they don't get enough of it, they become sandbags for the enemy team to punch. Chances of a comeback with one of these champions feeding on your team is almost none.

Champion Explanations

• Brand - Brand's always been a powerhouse in terms of damage, and deals a decent amount. The main reason why his strength fell was a mixture of AD burst assassins coupled with people getting used to dodging his skillshots and damage. However, with the minor buffs, Brand's definitely been brought back into spotlight with heavy nerfs on a lot of other champions across the board. I think we'll definitely see a comeback. Luckily I have Zombie Brand waiting...
• Corki - Corki's buff was pretty decent, and I think he's very on par with other AD champions now. With his reduction in playability for the last few months, I think he's also got a decent surprise factor in place.
• Draven - Nerfs hurt. He's still viable.
• Ezreal - Although a fed Ezreal is strong, we can't really say he's any better than any other AD carry at the moment. This tier's all pretty even...
• Fiora - Fiora's numbers are actually a lot better than I initialy gave her credit for. With the continual nerfs on tank items across the board, her ability to win trades with pure damage has increased, and while she's not overpowered by any means, she's at least playable against some common top lane champions.
• Hecarim - Continual minor nerfs have brought him down from overpowered to viable. He's still good, just not an auto-ban.
• Kassadin - Kassadin is seriously overpowered right now. With Nunu nerfed, you'll be seeing more twisted fate and kassadin bans for sure. Even if you shut him down, he'll always come back with a vengeance. 
• Leblanc - She did get some changes, but she's still not popular, and her late game still isn't that good without some early snowballing. Plus her waveclear is still pretty bad, which doesn't work well in the current meta.
• Malphite - Malphite's been getting some very low playability lately...of course with AP mages all the rage lately it's no wonder, but I think his ultimate is still very good.
• Malzahar - I know I've owed you guys an explanation on Malzahar for a while now, and I've been putting it off since I knew he was insanely strong, but I couldn't really explain why. Here's what it is in a nutshell: His poke has always been good, and his voidlings are strong. But the reason why he's REALLY good is because he has the ability to kill almost any tank in 2~4 seconds seconds flat with his W + R combo, and his E can chunk half of a squishy's life by itself. With that amount of peel and continuous damage, he's pretty much a one-man army. After soloing a Nautilus, Leblanc, and Shen simultaneously, you'll understand what I mean when I say he's ridiculously strong. 
• Nautilus - After the initial wow factor when he came back into play, people are now back to being cautious of his ganks, and are willing to flash to prevent a hook. He's still a pretty slow jungler, and easily counterjungled. Although he's good, without some ganks he falls behind other junglers quickly...his ultimate is still insanely good though.
• Nunu - He was nerfed. Still playable, but no longer Nunu Norris.
• Rumble - I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so...Rumble simply isn't as good as he used to be, and the stats prove it as he stands at a 50.08% win rate - hence he'll stay in Tier 2, the balanced tier.
• Shyvana - Her buff was pretty decent, and I think she's viable now. Pretty simple character, so it's really a matter of numbers.
• Tryndamere - Top lane Tryndamere...I considered putting him in god tier, but after all the complaining I get about Wukong I'm a little hesitant (seriously, Wukong has the second highest win rate in the game and there are still people who don't believe me when I say he's op?) Anyway, Tryndamere's trading power is decent, his sustain is good, and his pushing power is insane. Even if you manage to beat him once or twice in trades early on, unless you can build enough health to sustain through his invulnerability and enough damage to kill him through his lifesteal, his late game is an unstoppable pushing force.
• Twisted Fate - He's still good, but I'm considering moving him down...a lot of champions that counter him are becoming FOTM, and with teleport becoming a popular summoner mid lane he's losing some effectiveness via getting counter-ganked. He's still real good though, just with his wave clear, sustain, and ability to stun from jumping outside of ward range.
• Vayne - Draven nerfed you say?
• Viktor - Okay, Viktor's pretty decent, I'll accept that he's playable since his CCs are good and he does have the ability to 100-0 an enemy champion even if he misses his laser. I still think he's unreliable, but his damage is definitely there and his AOE is hard to outdamage in tight quarters.
• Wukong - Out of all the flack I get on my tier list I'd say that Wukong by far gets me the most moans and groans. I'm not sure why I still have to explain why he's OP, his trades are good, his initiation is good (really, who's going to get an oracle for Wukong?) and his ultimate is insanity. He's had a top 5 win rate for 4 patches in a row, and currently holds the #2 spot in win rates. When he becomes the #1 ban in LCS and gets nerfed by Riot, I expect some humble e-mails admitting the monkey's power.
• Ziggs - Ziggs got so many buffs, I mean wow. I still don't think he's OP by any means, but anybody against a Ziggs with blue buff and some CDR certainly will, I may move him up in the future, but he's still pretty squishy and can be unreliable in a pinch.

Disclaimer:

• The purpose of this list is for discussion and to provide a starting point for hero selection.

Agree? Disagree? Comment below!

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Scarizard Chats About Rengar

type='html'>Rengar's got some mixed opinions about him. Some people think he's viable, if not strong, if not OP, while others say he's paltry, not very interesting, and overall a weak pick.

Meanwhile, here's Riot's official stance on Rengar and where they're planning on taking him:

Our other goal is to retain his dueling nature and strength in ambushes and skirmishes, but lower his instagib potential in favor of deferring his up-front damage into longer engagement windows.

Hey y'all - 

So i wanted to talk to you guys about our good ol' Stabtabby, Rengar. Classick handed off to me his initial refactor of Rengar that he had begun posting about a while back, but internally it was shown that while it certainly buffed him and fixed some issues with his design, more work needed to be done.

What our playtests revealed is that preserving the predatory feel by making his ultimate stronger is all well and good, but proved pretty abusive when it came to his burst potential. In a way, Rengar is a champion that has always been defined by his abuse-cases, either in TripleQ assassinating someone in less than a second from stealth, or double tap W + DFG pentakilling teams from stealth with AP, or simply stacking health + spirit visage splitpushing waves, then escaping from nearly any sort of chase. We've come a long way from the latter of these, but if the Pridestalker is to see any sort of return to glory we'll need to iron out some of the abusive kinks and round him out as a whole.

We're sticking with the direction that Classick originally outlined in his post here (http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...71487#37371487) - namely reducing the frustration/toxicity of Thrill of the Hunt (Ultimately allowing us to buff the spell in other ways) and driving clarity in his Ferocity choices by having the effects scale with champion level rather than rank of skill. Our other goal is to retain his dueling nature and strength in ambushes and skirmishes, but lower his instagib potential in favor of deferring his up-front damage into longer engagement windows. While he'll still be a threat, changing him to a sustained damage pattern allows us to pump more power into his other abilities/ferocity bonuses and make his ability set as a whole stronger instead of the current 'stabcat on AD carry and one or both of us will die' pattern that makes Rengar so frustrating and binary to play as and against on Live.

So with that out of the way, here are some questions i'd like to get your thoughts on -

-Do you identify Rengar's playstyle as one that would be a particularly good fit in the jungle? What improvements would you like to see be made to help him out?

-What is appealing to you about the defensive boost Rengar receives from Battle Roar? I'd like to change this from just flat Armor and Magic Resistance to something that can be situationally more powerful and makes him less 'meatwall' when he leaps on a target

-What types of improvements or changes would you like to see be made to Bonetooth Necklace? Ideally i'd like to see this moved away from a 'stat-stick' and embrace more unique enhancements like his 'Increases Leap Range by 150'

These questions are really just to begin the discussion - i'm certainly looking for thoughts/feedback on a variety of topics, but these are a few that we've been talking about on a higher level that have less of a set direction currently. Wav3break, one of our Live Design Interns is working closely with me on this project and will be monitoring this thread alongside me and will help to soak feedback and answer questions y'all may have.

Without further ado: Rengar! I choose you!

Here are the changes (Without numbers, as they are subject to change/tuning as always) that we've been testing so far:

General
- Health Regen, Health Regen/lvl, and Health/lvl all increased

Unseen Predator
-Now becomes visible at the beginning of the leap, rather than midleap

Savagery 
- Attack Speed removed (Temporary for now - planning on putting something else here)

Ferocity Bonus: Savagery
- Damage lowered, Attack Speed lowered, Attack Speed Duration increased

Battle Roar
- Damage increased
- Cooldown decreased
- No longer grants Armor/MR - instead grants damage reduction from Physical Damage/Basic Attacks

Ferocity Bonus: Battle Roar
- Heal unchanged
- Now deals damage based on Rengar's level

Bola Strike
- Damage increased
- Bonus AD Ratio increased

Ferocity Bonus: Bola Strike
- Now deals damage based on Rengar's level
- Root duration increased

Thrill of the Hunt
- Cooldown decreased
- Duration increased
- Movement speed increased
- Enemies will now receive a particle over their head when Rengar can see them; Additionally, Enemies will hear Voice Over on activation if they are in Rengar's sight range (roughly 1000) when he casts Thrill of the Hunt

Source

What do you guys think about Rengar? Comment below!


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Spirit Guard Udyr Now Available On Sale!

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The long awaited and much hyped Spirit Guard Udyr is now available for 1950 RP! (40% discount for four days). Who's picking it up?

Roar into battle as Spirit Guard Udyr.

Enhance your experience with an evolving model that transforms as you reach max rank in each stance, new spell effects and animations across all four forms, as well as new VO and sound effects. Vanquish your prey with unique kill effects on minions, champions, and, for the first time, neutral monsters.

You can become one with the four eternal spirits as Spirit Guard Udyr for just 1950 RP for four days after release. For those who haven’t yet unlocked Udyr, a bundle will be available for 2295 RP.  When the sale ends, Spirit Guard Udyr will return to his regular price of 3250 RP. Source

Excited? Buying it? Comment below! 

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Correlation Between Wards, Ping, and Elo

type='html'>Earlier today Elophant released this interesting chart regarding the relationship between warding, ping, and the ranking of each player in each tier:

As you can see from this chart, the first chart is hardly surprising, the more you ward, the less likely it is for an enemy champion to gank, snowball and win the game. You can also see that even between diamond and challenger there's a strong discrepancy between how many pink wards are purchased.

Meanwhile, the second chart I think is more interesting...it's a correlation between ping and Elo. Does this really imply that all the Challenger ranked people live on the west coast near the Riot servers? Interesting.

Personally I think that anything under 80 is perfectly playable, and even 120 will do in a pinch. Anything more and you'll be at a disadvantage. Apparently 22 ms is the way to go in Challenger league though...

Internet + Wards = Elo?

What do you guys think? Comment below!

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7/22: Official PBE Patch Notes

type='html'>A few hours ago RiotPwyff released the latest in the world of PBE and Riot's plans for world domination ahem...I mean balance. Check them out below:

Buffs: Ashe, Malzahar
Nerfs: Elise, Fiddlesticks, Karthus, Twisted Fate, Zac
Tweaks: Ryze, Thresh

NUMERICAL VALUES ARE EXCLUDED FROM PBE PATCH NOTES DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE PBE (IT CHANGES).

Pwyff here - trying some things out with patch notes and patch communication. There will be a discussion down the line to further expand on the things we're trying to do with patch notes, and I'll link to the post when it arrives (some time today). For now enjoy some experimental PBE patch notes that are TENTATIVE.

Discussion on patch note format can be found here: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=3691786

Hey Summoners,

As you know, we use the PBE servers as a testing ground for a lot of our experimental changes, but we’ve run into situations where sometimes a change requires a bit more nuance to understand. As a result, we’ll be driving these PBE context posts when we can offer some more context.

Also note that these changes are tentative, like anything else on the PBE, so they are all very subject to change.

Champions

Ashe
Summary: Fixed a bug with Ashe’s passive where it would build up stacks while still on cooldown. To compensate, Ashe will gain more focus stacks per second.

Focus

• Focus stacks per second increased
• Fixed a bug where Focus was granting stacks in certain situations

Elise
Summary: Spiderlings are now less tanky overall, particularly against champions who build penetration. Spiderlings will also descend from Rappel after Elise does, so if Elise Rappels with tower aggro and no minions around, she’ll be the first target to be hit after she lands (towers used to hit Spiderlings first). Rappel's will no longer allow Elise to travel outside of her indicated range.

Spiderlings

• Health reduced
• Armor increased (based on Spider Form rank)
• Magic Resist increased (based on Spider Form rank)
• Multi-target damage reduction adjusted
• Vision radius reduced
• Spiderlings now instantly vanish upon shifting into Human Form
• Spiderlings are now grouped closer together while moving

Volatile Spiderling

• Movement Speed of the spiderling has been reduced
• Vision radius of the spiderling has been reduced

Rappel

• Elise can no longer descend outside of the indicated area
• Fixed a bug where Elise could begin casting spells and attacking as soon as she began her descent while she was still untargetable
• Spiderlings will now descend from Rappel slightly after Elise, instead of descending at the same time

Context: Elise has been a high-value pick in competitive play for some time thanks to the overall strength of her kit. We considered reducing the damage of some of her abilities, but felt like we should target her more frustrating aspects first. Specifically Elise’s spiderlings were very tanky and had a high amount of utility in soaking up damage – with these changes we can add a little more counterplay for players to take them out and Elise will need to think carefully about replenishing them with her passive.

The other ability we targeted was the deceptively long range of Rappel. We initially designed Elise’s Rappel to allow for some extra travel space outside of her indicated range, but in retrospect this caused Rappel to be extremely frustrating to play against. In this patch, the circular visual indicator will now more accurately represent where and who Elise is allowed to descend upon.

Fiddlesticks
Crowstorm

• Doesn't briefly reduce Baron Nashor, Dragon or Vilemaw's magic resist anymore

Karthus
Lay Waste

• When Karthus' passive is active Lay Waste casts targeted beyond max range will instead be cast at max range instead of doing nothing.

Defile

• Ability power ratio reduced
• Fixed a bug where Cooldown Reduction allowed Defile to be rapidly deactivated and reactivated to increase its damage output

Malzahar
Call of the Void

• Missile visibility from fog of war and brushes now consistent with other missiles

Summon Voidling

• Voidlings no longer repeatedly switch targets when more than one unit is affected with Malefic Visions

Nami
Aqua Prison

• Fixed a bug where sometimes the stun effect lasted longer than intended

Ryze
Summary: All of Ryze’s spell ranges are reduced, but his base movement speed and movement speed gained from Desperate Power have been increased.

Base Movement Speed increased
Overload

• Cast Range reduced

Rune Prison

• Cast Range reduced
• Mana Cost reduced

Spell Flux

• Cast Range reduced

Desperate Power

• Movement Speed increased

Context: With his spell range and high damage at late game, Ryze could effectively melt squishy champions on the back line while still being tanky (when built in that way). We wanted to focus on Ryze’s core identity as a “mid-range” mage so that he needs to focus on movement to get to his priority targets.

Thresh
Summary: Thresh will be more vulnerable at early levels but souls will now grant a flat bonus for each one collected, with no diminishing returns.

Base Health reduced
Base Armor reduced
Damnation

• Souls now always grant a flat amount of Armor and Ability Power per soul collected

Context: We wanted to make trading in lanes a little riskier for Thresh as he already had a lot of crowd control in Death Sentence and Flay. Additionally, souls had the tendency to become negligible in the late game due to their diminishing returns, so letting them give a flat bonus means Thresh’s passive won’t feel worse for players who are diligent in picking up souls.

Twisted Fate
Summary: Loaded Dice no longer grants global bonus gold – instead it gives Twisted Fate an overall higher amount of personal gold every time he kills a minion. Pick a Card now has a smaller window to throw the card after locking it instead of just a long window to both lock and throw the card.

Loaded Dice (Remade)

• Upon killing a unit Twisted Fate rolls his dice, gaining anywhere from 1 to 6 bonus gold. Naturally, Twisted Fate has a higher chance to receive a larger bonus.

Pick a Card

• No longer has a 10 second duration to both lock and throw the card
• Now has a set amount of time to lock the card and a smaller window of time to throw it

Context: Loaded Dice was giving Twisted Fate and his team a lot of hidden power without feeling individually impactful. The change fits more thematically with his kit and allows his passive to feel more noticeable. 
The Pick a Card changes are intended to introduce more counterplay to the ability, as many players were locking their card within a second or two of shuffling, and then sitting on the locked card for the rest of the duration to intimidate opponents. While there is more time overall to utilize Pick a Card, players will have a smaller window to act once they lock in.

Warwick
Infinite Duress

• Fixed a bug where damage would continue after being interrupted by enemy champions

Zac
Elastic Slingshot

• Damage reduced

General

Baron Nashor
Summary: Baron Nashor will now take less physical and magical damage from targets affected by Voracious Corrosion (the single target debuff he can apply to whoever is tanking him) as opposed to directly reducing Attack Damage. Overall this means that soloing Baron with a sustained magic source will be far more difficult.

• Baron Nashor's 'Voracious Corrosion' effect now no longer reduces the target's Attack Damage by 50%.
• Baron Nashor's 'Voracious Corrosion' effect now reduces the physical and magical damage the target would deal to Nashor.

Context: As mentioned above, soloing Baron with a single sustained magic source was too easy for a select few champions, so this will make things more consistent overall. A noted side effect is that teams who attempt Baron will be at less of a disadvantage when engaged upon, due to the fact that Voracious Corrosion doesn’t directly alter attack damage (it just reduces damage directed at Baron Nashor). We will monitor this and act if it seems to be a significant problem.

Turrets
Summary: Turrets will be harder to push down within the very early stages of the game. We’ve also corrected a minor bug where purple side inner turrets had slightly more armor than intended.

• Outer turrets gain a flat armor bonus at the beginning of the game for 8 minutes
• Outer turrets base Armor increased
• Outer turrets no longer gain Armor over the first 8 minutes
• Fixed a bug where purple side inner turrets had 10 more armor than intended

Context: Due to the high global value of map objectives and the ease of taking down turrets in the early game with certain compositions, players – particularly in competitive play – have been entirely bypassing the laning phase. Ultimately we didn’t want to completely eliminate this strategy but its prevalence was invalidating many champions who have high potential during the laning phase. These changes should introduce more risk into aggressive early-game objective-focused strategies without eliminating its viability completely.

For additional context, while the numbers might initially seem high (in particular the Purple Side Inner Turrets having 10 more armor than intended), Turrets begin the game with much more armor relative to champions so these changes are not as significant as they might first seem.

Items

MR Items
Summary: Two new magic resistance items have been added to the game, with one being an upgrade for Hexdrinker and the other being a mid-level MR item to build out to Spirit Visage and Banshee’s Veil. 

New Item: Spellbreaker (Melee Only)

• Recipe: Hexdrinker + Avarice Blade + Gold
• + Attack Damage
• + Magic Resistance
• + Critical Strike Chance
• UNIQUE Passive - Tenacity: Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds, and immobilizes by 35%.
• UNIQUE Passive - Lifeline: Upon taking magic damage that would reduce Health below 30%, grants a shield that absorbs 400 magic damage for 5 seconds (90 second cooldown.)

New Item: Spectre's Cowl

• Recipe: Ruby Crystal + Negatron Cloak + Gold
• + Health
• + Magic Resistance
• UNIQUE Passive: Grants bonus Health Regen per 5 seconds for up to 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion.

Spirit Visage

• Recipe Changed: Spectre's Cowl + Kindlegem + Gold
• Health increased
• Magic Resistance increased
• Now additionally grants bonus Health Regen per 5 seconds

Banshee's Veil

• Recipe Changed: Spectre's Cowl + Ruby Crystal + Gold
• Health increased
• Magic Resistance increased
• No longer gives mana
• Additional UNIQUE Passive: Grants significant bonus Health Regen per 5 seconds for up to 10 seconds after taking damage from an enemy champion or when the spell shield breaks.

Guardian Angel

• Recipe Changed: Negatron Cloak + Chain Vest + Gold
• Magic Resistance increased

Context: We wanted to reposition Magic Resistance to be more of a personal stat as opposed to being an aura-focused stat (see below for our Runic Bulwark changes). With these changes we specifically wanted to create more itemization options against sustained magic damage dealers in the mid game as well as create more space for tanks versus late game poke teams. 

Bulwark & Locket
Summary: Runic Bulwark has been removed from the game. Aegis of the Legion now builds into Locket of the Iron Solari.

Aegis of the Legion

• Combine cost reduced
• Health reduced
• No longer grants self-only Magic Resist

• UNIQUE Aura – Legion
• No longer grants Armor
• Magic Resist increased
• No longer grants additional bonuses to minions

Runic Bulwark

• Removed from the game

Locket of the Iron Solari

• New build path: Aegis of the Legion + Gold
• + Health
• + Armor
• + Cooldown Reduction

• UNIQUE Active retained
• Now grants UNIQUE Aura – Legion

Context: We wanted to reduce the burden of buying an Aegis / Bulwark every game. By combining Aegis and Locket, we can more clearly push them into their strategic niche of team fight area-effect damage reduction. 

Other Items

Spirit of the Ancient Golem

• Health reduced

Blade of the Ruined King

• Active Haste/Slow duration reduced

Warden's Mail

• Passive Slow Duration reduced
• Cost reduced

Randuin's Omen

• Passive Slow duration reduced
• Cost reduced

Frozen Heart

• Cost reduced

New Icons
The following items have received new icons

• Vampiric Scepter
• Catalyst the Protector
• Deathfire Grasp
• Glacial Shroud
• Abyssal Scepter
• Thornmail
• Hextech Revolver
• Haunting Guise

Summoner's Rift
Summary: All camps outside of buff camps will now spawn later in the game. Some experience has been moved back from the Ancient Golem and Lizard Elder to their Young Lizard spawns so now junglers will need to clear the full camp in order to hit level 2, as opposed to simply killing the buff monster.

Wolves

• Spawn time increased to 2:05 from 1:55

Wraiths

• Spawn time increased to 2:05 from 1:55

Golems

• Spawn time increased to 2:05 from 1:55

Ancient Golem

• Base experience granted reduced to 260 from 340

Lizard Elder

• Base experience granted reduced to 260 from 340

Young Lizard

• Base experience granted increased to 50 from 10
• Base Health increased to 400 from 300

Context: Our first jungle modifications in 3.8 were not quite enough to enact the changes we wanted, so we’re pushing spawn timers even further to finish the job while fixing some other unintended side effects. 
Junglers could completely cripple an opposing jungler – especially early on – without fully committing to confrontation by smiting the buff and escaping, or killing their opponent with the immediate level advantage. We like the importance of aggressive early game invades, but we want to make sure there is an appropriate amount of risk involved.

Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar
Summary: Needlessly Large Rod and Deathfire Grasp removed from these map modes, with more mid-level AP items added into the game, including Liandry’s Torment, Seeker’s Armguard, and Moonflair Spellblade – a mid-tier defensive AP item. Blackfire Torch now has the active ability of Deathfire Grasp.

Bug Fixes

• Vilemaw now properly selects his melee attack for melee champions with more than 100 range
• Vilemaw no longer twitches when players leave his lair
• Lesser Wraith health now properly scales with time

General Changes

• Needlessly Large Rod removed
• Deathfire Grasp removed
• Liandry's Torment enabled
• Seeker's Armguard enabled

RETURNING ITEM: Moonflair Spellblade (Ranged Only)

• Recipe: Seeker's Armguard + Negatron Cloak + Gold
• + Ability Power
• + Armor
• + Magic Resistance
• UNIQUE Passive - Tenacity: Reduces the duration of stuns, slows, taunts, fears, silences, blinds, and immobilizes by 35%.

Blackfire Torch

• Reworked: Blasting Wand + Fiendish Codex + Gold
• + Ability Power
• + Cooldown Reduction
• UNIQUE Active: Deals 20% of target champion's maximum Health in magic damage over 6 seconds and increases all subsequent magic damage taken by the target by 20% (60 second cooldown).

Wooglet's Witchcap

• New Build Path: Seeker's Armguard + Blasting Wand + Amplifying Tome + Gold
• Armor increased

Context: This small-scale AP rework is intended to address AP survivability and viability in Twisted Treeline and Crystal Scar. Needlessly Large Rod (and, by extension, Deathfire Grasp) are removed because Needlessly Large Rod is unreasonably difficult to save up for on these maps. The addition of Moonflair Spellblade and Seeker’s Armguard should also help with early-mid game survivability.

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Updates On Rengar Testing

type='html'>In the latest wave of Rengar testing by Riot, they speak to initial testing on giving Bonetooth Necklace the ability to build stacks of killing neutral minions, placing Rengar in much more a of niche Jungle role, similar to what they did to Nunu. Check out the full post below!

Hunters belong in the jungle...

RiotWav3break chats about Rengar

Hey everybody, just wanted to update you guys with the current testing status of our current iteration of Rengar.

Heavy destructive testing will continue for the Empowered Savagery refunding 3 ferocity points play pattern. This past week we found that Rengar was still doing too much damage in too little of a time frame which is a problem we still need to solve within this iteration. This iteration also makes jungle Rengar incredibly resourceful as he can walk away from each creep camp with more ferocity stacks and gank lanes without as much preparation.

The big changes we will be testing this week are Bone Tooth Necklace which will now give Rengar a personalized jungle item which has a really favorable build path out of Long Sword and Hunter's Machete. The overall price of the item has stayed the same but as Scarizard said in his posts, "mini-brutalizer" - esque stats will no longer exist on BTN. BTN is now an item that gives Rengar bonuses that directly impact his mobility in the jungle and thus his overall map pressure. The current bonuses in place look something like this:

3 Stacks - Rengar gains 15% movement speed while in brush(bonus does not persist outside of brush like Nidalee's)

6 Stacks - Rengar gains 100 range on his Leap(slightly nerfed due to having access to it earlier.)

9 Stacks - Rengar retains movement speed from his Ultimate for 5 seconds after exiting his ultimate. (Rocket cat goes zooooooooom)

The 14 stack bonus is still a pretty big grey area as we want Rengar players to reach this epic state at 14 stacks but we don't want them to do so at the cost of making his game play toxic again.

An additional mechanic we will be testing with BTN is allowing Rengar players to build stacks out of neutral monster kills. Currently the amount of neutral monster kills required to build a stack is pretty hefty, which encourages jungle Rengar to invade the enemy jungle to take camps but also hopefully interact with the enemy jungler. This mechanic is still kind of the grey area as well because it might give too many advantages to a jungle Rengar over a lane Rengar and we don't want to make laning Rengar's feel bad for purchasing this item.


If you guys have any thoughts on what epic thing Rengar should get at maximum stacks toss'em out! I look forward to the ideas you guys will give me and Scarizard!

Meanwhile, Scarizard had a little extra to add as far as where they're leading in terms of allowing laning Rengar to still have strength.

Going to be testing this iteration today - then i'll be able to elaborate more on how it went, and give you a general confidence read on where everything is. So far we're pretty signed off on the direction of the Q-Train, pending numbers tuning.

Goals are:
- Simplify the warning on ultimate. Whether it's short-range icon, long range VO, etc, we're going to make a decision soon on which version of the warning we want, but likely not to do both of them.

- Heavy iteration on BTN. Already see a couple of things i'd like to see changed, would also like to respond to concerns/feedback that the item has no actual stats that would make you want to keep it end-game. I think we can fix this without saying 'flatly gives Arpen/CDR/Stuff'. Want this to be good for Lanegar as well, so paying special attention to the jungle-specific interations to see how they're playing out. Would also like to clarify that AD is not taken off of this item, and is a tuning point we can use for its efficiency.

Will post more stuff after playtests/conversations with the team and give you guys an update.

What do you guys think about the upcoming Rengar changes? I know a lot of you already like him as he is now, will you play him more after the changes?


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